Horizon
by Kristin The Writer
Summary: After the events of Timeline; A new team with a new task sets out for the one place that has not been documented, or seen : dimensions in the multiverse of the future.
1. Chapter One

A/'N: Lightbulb, this came to me. It's taking ideas from Timeline, few of the characters. Therefore, I'm making most of the people up on my own. This takes place after the events of Timeline. *~  
  
  
  
"It's possible," I disagreed, shaking my head in protest. Gordon glared at me, eyes narrowed, glancing from his clipboard back up to me, and putting on an amused, 'eat shit' sort of smile.  
  
"I'd like to know how, then, Ms. Naise."  
  
"Well," I paused for effect, and to gather the millions of thoughts that were buzzing through my mind. We sat in a board room, faceless scientists and researchers behind him. Behind me were my team - Preston, Chase, and Rickson - looking particularly nervous. Our entire year of research, our ideas.. sweat, tears, and blood.. rested on my speech.   
  
But no pressure or anything.  
  
"Yes?" he asked, pointedly, some of the scientists behind him sharing looks.  
  
"If the multiverse is created out of the dimensions that have split," I started, and then offered a smile and went on, as the ideas formed themselves, shaped, fell into place in my brain, " then who's to say that we're the dimension everything's been split from? We can move into the future, because we're the past of another dimension. We were split away, too. Just as the Castelgard incident was the past of our reality, we are the past of another. Therefore, we can go forward, because it does exist."  
  
There was a pause as scientists glared at their clipboards, blinking as they tried to work it out.  
  
"You've said it yourself," I went on, grinning back over my shoulder to my three comrades, then looking right back to Gordon. "Time doesn't flow. One time exists alongside another in the multiverse."  
  
"And you want to go forward." He stated - didn't ask - calmly, leaning forward against the table. "We don't know what's *there*, Katherine. We don't know. If we send you forward, we might send you right into an earthquake, or a natural disaster, or a flood, or the bottom of the ocean, or off a cliff. There might be a war, there might be factors that we haven't even begun to dream of. Who can say what the future holds?"  
  
A pause, as I glanced down at my notes. We'd thought of all of this, and all of us had agreed - "We can. After we get back."  
  
"The risks are too great," he argued again, shaking his head. "I can't let you do this."  
  
"Do you truly believe the risks are greater than the rewards, Mr. Gordon? To know what the future holds? To .. to know what's to come?"  
  
"This isn't just a few years you're asking for, Ms. Naise. This is a millenium. Will the Earth even be intact in a thousand years?"  
  
"There's one way to find out."  
  
"You're mad," he said simply, giving a sigh. "You'd almost certainly die."  
  
"Then let us," I said, firmly, face of resolve sliding over my features. "Let us risk it. They're our lives to lose."  
  
"Are your teammates behind you?" he asked, glancing back at the three. Denise Preston, a woman with a very hard, draconian face, brown hair pulled up into a tight bun. Wire frame glasses rested on the bridge of her nose. She looked like she was a librarian. And she was far nicer than her appearance suggested. Gregory Chase, a younger man from a rich family; he was handsome, very boyish, not very muscled, and also gay. Quiet and shy, he always liked to keep to himself while working, but he always had a smile for whoever would accept it. And finally, there was Robert Rickson, the captain of his highschool and college football teams. He was broadshouldered, strong. At first, there was a bit of animosity between Rob and Greg, but it was soon pushed aside. Meanwhile, I - Katherine Naise - was a student of law when I heard of the Castelgard incident from a very drunk man at a bar. I was intrigued, so I went to New Mexico to find things out for myself.   
  
It was two years ago. They were seeking to hire people, and I demanded to see whoever was in charge. I was brought to Gordon. I admit, at first I was attracted to him, but it did not last long - I had to be a professional about things. I was hired to learn the technology, and so that I wouldn't tell my knowledge of that accident, and that they'd left a man behind in the past, to anyone else. It was a year and three months ago, when I'd first gotten my idea. I'd been listening to a few scientists lecture about the multiverse, when suddenly it hit me. If we can go to a dimension of our past, then why not a dimension of our future?   
  
"We are," said Rob finally, nodding firmly. Beside him, Greg and Denise nodded as well. Gordon saw this, and shook his head, muttering and looking down at his clipboard.  
  
"You're all insane."  
  
  
A/N: I want reviews. REVIEWS! *~ 


	2. Chapter Two

~* A/N: Took me a while to write this! Hopefully you'll like it, and please review! *~  
  
  
  
  
Rob packed two matching pistols into his pack, a long silver knife, binoculars, night-vision goggles.. the list of military supplies that he'd obtained was endless. Meanwhile, Greg was inspecting a camera; he had one digital one, two disposable cameras, and a video camera. An expensive-looking laptop was tucked into his pack.  
  
"Do you think we'll need all that?" Greg asked Rob, not truly sounding nervous, but rather skeptical.  
  
"Do you know what can happen in a thousand years?" replied the other, opening a plastic case, full of metal bullets, checked it, and then closed it again. "The would could have been taken over by giant rabid llamas for all we know. We should be careful."  
  
I snickered a little, shaking my head and rolling my eyes, sharing an amused look with Denise as she double-checked a GPS device, which displayed location, temperature, barometer readings, anything a scientist might need to know about the weather. I packed food, freeze-dried stuff like astronauts eat.   
  
Just in case.  
  
  
~*~  
  
  
"Stand still," came the electronic voice into our machine as the four of us stood within. "Eyes open. Deep breath." I inhaled sharply, filling my chest and stomach with air. "Hold it... NOW!" Then a flash, and more flashes, each time everything around me seemed to get bigger. I'd only done this once before. Then, I'd reassured myself with that - I wasn't shrinking, everything else was getting bigger. After the first trip, it was easier to accept. Darkness and then lights. I always tried not to watch the lights, they seemed to make me ask questions, second guess what I was doing. And blackness again, so dark that it seemed like nothing could ever light it - even the strongest light from the brightest fire could not, it would even be lost in the dark.  
  
It is darkness like that, that makes you think of your journey. What would we find on the Earth? What will be there, what civilization; what life, if any exists at all? And if there is nothing, just a vast expanse of darkness even darker than the one we were sinking through now, what then? We go back, and what do we tell the others? Our race is doomed? Mankind has a lifespan of maybe a few more hundred years?   
  
Do we stay and look for answers? What if what we find is worse than nothing; something so terrible has befallen the human race, something so bad that we haven't been able to realize it's even remote possibility, not even in our worst nightmares, in the dead of the night, have we dreamt it up?  
  
As the leader, it was my duty to make such decisions. But I do not know the answers - I've only just begun to ask the questions.   
  
We sank, for what seemed like forever, before finally, at last, the doors opened and we looked out. Got our first look at the future.  
  
The land was barren. A wasteland, riddled with dust, ash, and scattered remains of rock. It was a desert, in all but temperature. It was not hot, nor cold. It was a perfect temperature; room temperature.  
  
Greg stepped out of the machine, beside Denise and Rob. Each of us carried our small ceramic slab with a button on the side, to call back the machine.  
  
"Sixty eight degrees," murmured Denise, pulling the GPS system from a pouch in her backpack. "We're in the middle of the Arizona desert.. sixty-eight degrees? We're in the middle of August."  
  
While she pondered this, Greg was adjusting his digital camera on a strap around his neck. Rob came up behind me, glancing about.   
  
"What do you think?" he asked, quietly, and I shrugged.  
  
"I assume we're still in the desert. Though it is cooled."  
  
"That's odd," Denise said, off to the side, and finally my attention was drawn back to her.  
  
"What?"  
  
"The barometer reading.. it's strange."  
  
"What do you mean?" asked Greg, glancing up with raised eyebrows.  
  
"Well, usually it'd be.. this is a reading like you'd get in a pressurized room."  
  
"Hm," said Rob, shrugging off-handedly. "Oh, well. We're not in a room. I don't see any walls, do you?"  
  
There was a few moment's pause, all of us glancing back and forth. I could see no walls, just endless flatland.  
  
"No," said Greg, his eyes drifted upward. The rest of us followed his gaze. And then he stated that which had become obvious to us, what the rest of us were thinking. "But I see a ceiling."  
  
  
  
  
~*A/N: Oooh.. aaahhh.. review! *~ 


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